To those persons, whether critics or otherwise, who judging from mere hearsay, and following the base track of slavish custom, would proceed to pronounce the condemnation of Astrology, without investigating its theory, or hearing aught in its defence, (contrary to the inimitable policy of British jurisprudence, which in every case wisely endeavours to sound the mysteries, and hear the merits of whatever is brought before the public tribunal,) the author would just ask, were an illiterate ploughman, or an ignorant cobbler, each of whom were ignorant of the theory of letters, to deny in toto, the laws of vision, the problems of longitude, parallax, refraction, or any of the more intricate theories of modern science, would they not instantly laugh him to scorn, for declaring his absurd denial, of that which his ignorant understanding would not lead him to comprehend? Certainly they would; and therefore let me impress on the minds of these gentlemen, that however learned they may be in other respects, yet if they deliver their unqualified veto against the doctrines of Astrology, without having first analysed and well examined its truth or falsehood experimentally, without proving by the application of its rules to their own horoscopes, that the influence of Saturn was not evil, nor that of Jupiter benevolent; or in a similar way, demonstrating by facts, the actual fallacy of the science, they are acting equally as absurd and ridiculous, as the ploughman or cobbler aforesaid, which must be self-evident to every one. - Therefore, let those who wish to explode our system, first remember the saying of Plato.

And until they have cast their own horoscopes, or proved from some nativity, or theme of heaven, that there is no truth in Astrology, the author can easily bear with their reproaches; and whatever pompous assertions they may bring forward, upon perusing this work, the author thereof, as a believer in tike system he vindicates, from experience, will still have the best of the argument, in the opinion of every unprejudiced person.

Neither should the occasional failures of its professors, afford any argument against the science itself; since men do not condemn the scriptures, merely because heresies, and heretical schisms, have arisen there from; nor do they deny the art of the physician, through his own inefficiency, nor explode the whole science of chymistry, merely because the chymist fails in some of his analytical experiments. - Why then should Astrology alone, which of all other sciences, claims the most serious and undivided attention, become the butt of incredulity, through the sins of its professors ?

* I am well aware that it is quite unfashionable, at present, to quote scripture in support of my theory, bat for the better proof of what I have advanced as above, let the candid and impartial reader consult Gen. i. 14, 15. Deut. xxxiii. 14. Psalm xix. 1. and xix. 3. Judges v. 20. Job xxxviii. 31. Amos v. 8. Job ix. 9,10. Wisdom of Sol. vi. 22. Ecclesiasticus xliii. 6', and numerous other passages of holy writ, where the influences of the stars is recorded.

In looking deeply into the sympathies of nature, which we are constantly experiencing, we can hardly quarrel with those who have ascribed to them an agency more than we can comprehend. We see a gift of foreknowledge strongly implanted in the badger, the hedgehog, the fox, the hare, and almost every animal with which we are acquainted. - We see also that birds and reptiles have a surprising forecast: and who can fail to perceive effects constantly working between the heavenly bodies, and the bodies and souls of mankind- - whether their exists an etherial effluvium that is communicated from one body to another, and which produces those strange sympathies we are witnessing, is not to be declared : -

"Nil sine magno Vita labore dedit mortalibus".

Horace.

We know they are produced; and being able to connect them with what we term "planetary influence" is sufficient to show, we have sound and sufficient ground-work for forecasting the effects incident to known causes - and this is all the Astrologer contends for in the "BOOK OF THE STARS "

Throughout the whole of the present treatise, the utmost care has been taken to faciliate the student in the knowledge of each Astrological problem. No obsolete or difficult tables are inserted therein, (merely to puzzle the reader, as too many writers have heretofore been guilty of,) and when to these considerations, are joined, the important diagrams - the judiciously selected horoscopes - and the elegant engravings which adorn, while they illustrate the work - the author confidently trusts it will appear evident, that neither labor, pains, nor expense has been spared to render the present volume the most valuable treatise on Astrology, that the English nation has yet produced - and more worthy of popular support than any work of the kind that has preceded it.